1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing device and a printing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, so-called flatbed-type printing devices are known. In a flatbed-type printing device, a printing head is moved, for example, in two directions perpendicular to each other in a plane with respect to a printing subject placed on a table. Such a flatbed-type printing device is used for performing printing on, for example, a printing subject such as a substantially rectangular business card, greeting card or the like. In the following description, the term “printing subject” is a “substantially rectangular sheet-type or plate-type printing subject such as a substantially rectangular business card, greeting card or the like”, unless otherwise specified.
For performing printing on a printing subject by use of a flatbed-type printing device, the printing subject is placed on a table and then printing is performed. For accurate printing, the printing subject needs to be placed accurately at a predetermined position. This requires, for example, measuring the size of the printing subject beforehand, so that the position at which the printing subject is to be placed is determined accurately.
Such a work needs to be performed accurately. For an unexperienced operator, the work is time-consuming. This causes a problem that the printing requires a long time and the production cost is raised. There is also a problem that the work requires a great number of steps to be performed by an operator, which imposes a heavy load on the operator.
A technology for solving these problems is proposed by, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-136764. According to the technology disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-136764, a jig that can be secured to a table and accommodate a plurality of printing subjects is produced. For performing printing, the jig is secured to the table and a plurality of printing subjects are accommodated in the jig, and each of the plurality of printing subjects is accommodated at a predetermined position in the jig. This allows the printing to be performed at predetermined positions of the printing subjects.
However, the above-described technology requires producing a jig in accordance with the shape or the size of a printing subject. This causes a problem that the production of a jig is time-consuming, which imposes a heavy load on the operator. In addition, even in the case where printing is to be performed on a small number of printing subjects, a jig needs to be produced. This increases the cost.